Classic album nights

A growing number of music-lovers unhappy about the way album tracks are enjoyed in a pick-and-mix fashion have decided to take action.

The rules are strict. No talking. No texting. You must listen to every song on the album.

Classic Album Sundays treat our best-loved records like great symphonies and are being set up in London, Scotland and Wales.

Groups of music fans sit in front of a vinyl turntable, with the best speakers they can afford, dim the lights and listen to a classic album all the way through.

This monthly club in north London is run by Colleen Murphy and for her it is a strike against "'download culture", the sense that music has just become an endless compilation of random songs used as background noise.

"Everyone, stop multi-tasking, sit down, open your ears and do some heavy listening."

I laughed while reading the article, as if listening to David Bowie with the lights off, the bathroom door locked, and £12,000 speakers will somehow unlock a deeper artistic meaning in classic butt-rock. Doing the same for metal would strike me as equally ludicrous. Yes, metal at its best is beautiful and complex, but just as importantly vicious, savage, the sonic equivalent of Conan the Cimmerian. Best enjoyed with a beer, copious headbanging, and whatever speakers do the job.

And lol @ people trying to compare their music to Dickens or whatever ye olde writer they choose. Insecurity much? Besides, I can see no joy in reading a Dickens novel from front to end in one sitting. I doubt the Victorians did either, as many of his major works originally appeared serially.

I laughed while reading the article, as if listening to David Bowie with the lights off, the bathroom door locked, and £12,000 speakers will somehow unlock a deeper artistic meaning in classic butt-rock. Doing the same for metal would strike me as equally ludicrous. Yes, metal at its best is beautiful and complex, but just as importantly vicious, savage, the sonic equivalent of Conan the Cimmerian. Best enjoyed with a beer, copious headbanging, and whatever speakers do the job.

And lol @ people trying to compare their music to Dickens or whatever ye olde writer they choose. Insecurity much? Besides, I can see no joy in reading a Dickens novel from front to end in one sitting. I doubt the Victorians did either, as many of his major works originally appeared serially.

Good points. But I think this is a good idea at its core; get some individuals together with brews and nice comfy seats, and blast a great metal album. I'd encourage the headbanging in the room too.

I laughed while reading the article, as if listening to David Bowie with the lights off, the bathroom door locked, and £12,000 speakers will somehow unlock a deeper artistic meaning in classic butt-rock. Doing the same for metal would strike me as equally ludicrous. Yes, metal at its best is beautiful and complex, but just as importantly vicious, savage, the sonic equivalent of Conan the Cimmerian. Best enjoyed with a beer, copious headbanging, and whatever speakers do the job.

And lol @ people trying to compare their music to Dickens or whatever ye olde writer they choose. Insecurity much? Besides, I can see no joy in reading a Dickens novel from front to end in one sitting. I doubt the Victorians did either, as many of his major works originally appeared serially.

There's a great deal of truth in your second observation. If the work in question can't be positively evaluated without invoking some great precursor, why spend any amount of time engaging with it? The music should stand or fall on its own merit.

As a friend of mine put it, Dickens may have been a hack, but he was a supremely talented hack.

Let's just have one of these here. We could pick an album every week, each give it a close, focused listen, and then report back here to discuss it.

I think it defeats the purpose a bit. Uniting with other like minded individuals experiencing music together is powerful. We pretty much talk about how awesome metal is anyways on this forum, being with each other experiencing it is completly different. Similar to a live show, you cant go home and listen to the album that was played and get the same experience.

I laughed while reading the article, as if listening to David Bowie with the lights off, the bathroom door locked, and £12,000 speakers will somehow unlock a deeper artistic meaning in classic butt-rock. Doing the same for metal would strike me as equally ludicrous. Yes, metal at its best is beautiful and complex, but just as importantly vicious, savage, the sonic equivalent of Conan the Cimmerian. Best enjoyed with a beer, copious headbanging, and whatever speakers do the job.

And lol @ people trying to compare their music to Dickens or whatever ye olde writer they choose. Insecurity much? Besides, I can see no joy in reading a Dickens novel from front to end in one sitting. I doubt the Victorians did either, as many of his major works originally appeared serially.

The music they choose in the article is irrelevant, the idea is what is important. Also, it being vinyl is not all that important, just so long as people sit and listen a classic album all the way through. You can enjoy metal with a beer and headbaning, but I'm sorry, I could think of nothing better than sitting down with some like minded individuals and listenning to Burzum, Demilich or Immolation albums from start to finish without talking or phones and then hang out and talk about it afterwards. Great idea to spread around universities as well I reckon, maybe convert some people.

Let's just have one of these here. We could pick an album every week, each give it a close, focused listen, and then report back here to discuss it.

Some may disagree but when it comes to discussing the finer points of a particular album there is an inherent disconnect when trying to discuss them over the internet. When listened to in the company of others who have a discerning ear, more can be expressed both physically (facial expressions, body language etc) and verbally. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate lengthy and detailed critiques and reviews but sometimes seeing and actually hearing others opinions conveys more information. Although I guess this goes for more than just music. Point being the internet is not always a suitable substitute for human interaction....